Archive/File: imt/ tgmwc/judgment/j-defendants-kaltenbrunner
Last-Modified: 1997/09/05
Judgment
of the
International Military Tribunal
For The
Trial of German Major War Criminals
London
His Majesty's Stationery Office
1951
[Page 92]
THE PRESIDENT:
KALTENBRUNNER
Kaltenbrunner is indicted under Counts One, Three, and Four.
He joined the Austrian Nazi Party and the SS in 1932. In
1935 he became leader of the SS in Austria. After the
Anschluss he was appointed Austrian State Secretary for
Security and when this position was abolished in 1941 he was
made Higher SS and Police Leader. On 30th January, 1943, he
was appointed Chief of the Security Police and SD and Head
of the Reich Security Head Office (RSHA), a position which
had been held by Heydrich until his assassination in June,
1942. He held the rank of Obergruppenfuehrer in the SS.
Crimes against Peace
As leader of the SS in Austria Kaltenbrunner was active in
the Nazi intrigue against the Schuschnigg Government. On the
night of 11th March, 1938, after Goering had ordered
Austrian National Socialists to seize control of the
[Page 93]
Austrian Government, 500 Austrian SS men under
Kaltenbrunner's command surrounded the Federal Chancellery
and a special detachment under the command of his adjutant
entered the Federal Chancellery while Seyss-Inquart was
negotiating with President Miklas. But there is no evidence
connecting Kaltenbrunner with plans to wage aggressive war
on any other front. The Anschluss, although it was an
aggressive act, is not charged as an aggressive war, and the
evidence against Kaltenbrunner under Count One does not, in
the opinion of the Tribunal, show his direct participation
in any plan to wage such a war.
War crimes and Crimes against humanity
When he became Chief of the Security Police and SD and Head
of the RSHA on 30th January, 1943, Kaltenbrunner took charge
of an organisation which included the main offices of the
Gestapo, the SD, and the Criminal Police. As Chief of the
RSHA, Kaltenbrunner had authority to order protective
custody to and release from concentration camps. Orders to
this effect were normally sent over his signature.
Kaltenbrunner was aware of conditions in concentration
camps. He had undoubtedly visited Mauthausen and witnesses
testified that he had seen prisoners killed by the various
methods of execution, hanging, shooting in the back of the
neck, and gassing, as part of a demonstration. Kaltenbrunner
himself ordered the execution of prisoners in those camps
and his office was used to transmit to the camps execution
orders which originated in Himmler's office. At the end of
the war Kaltenbrunner participated in the arrangements for
the evacuation of inmates of concentration camps, and the
liquidation of many of them, to prevent them from being
liberated by the Allied armies.
During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was Head of the
RSHA, it was engaged in a widespread program of War crimes
and Crimes against Humanity. These crimes included the
mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war. Einsatz
Kommandos operating under the control of the Gestapo were
engaged in the screening of Soviet prisoners of war. Jews,
commissars, and others who were thought to be ideologically
hostile to the Nazi system were reported to the RSHA, which
had them transferred to a concentration camp and murdered.
An RSHA order issued during Kaltenbrunner's regime
established the "Bullet Decree," under which certain escaped
prisoners of war who were recaptured were taken to
Mauthausen and shot. The order for the execution of commando
troops was extended by the Gestapo to include parachutists
while Kaltenbrunner was Chief of the RSHA. An order signed
by Kaltenbrunner instructed the police not to interfere with
attacks on bailed-out Allied fliers. In December, 1944,
Kaltenbrunner participated in the murder of one of the
French generals held as a prisoner of war.
During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was head of the
RSHA, the Gestapo and SD in occupied territories continued
the murder and ill-treatment of the population, using
methods which included torture and confinement in
concentration camps, usually under orders to which
Kaltenbrunner's name was signed.
The Gestapo was responsible for enforcing a rigid labor
discipline on the slave laborers and Kaltenbrunner
established a series of labor reformatory camps for this
purpose. When the SS embarked on a slave labor program of
its own, the Gestapo was used to obtain the needed workers
by sending laborers to concentration camps.
The RSHA played a leading part in the "final solution" of
the Jewish question by the extermination of the Jews. A
special section under the Amt IV of the RSHA was established
to supervise this program. Under its direction approximately
six million Jews were murdered, of which two million
[Page 94]
were killed by Einsatzgruppen and other units of the
Security Police. Kaltenbrunner had been informed of the
activities of these Einsatzgruppen when he was a Higher SS
and Police Leader, and they continued to function after he
had become Chief of the RSHA.
The murder of approximately four million Jews in
concentration camps has heretofore been described. This part
of the program was also under the supervision of the RSHA
when Kaltenbrunner was head of that organisation, and
special missions of the RSHA scoured the occupied
territories and the various Axis satellites arranging for
the deportation of Jews to these extermination institutions.
Kaltenbrunner was informed of these activities. A letter
which he wrote on 30th June, 1944, described the shipment to
Vienna of 12,000 Jews for that purpose, and directed that
all who could not work would have to be kept in readiness
for "special action," which meant murder. Kaltenbrunner
denied his signature to this letter, as he did on a very
large number of orders on which his name was stamped or
typed, and, in a few instances, written. It is inconceivable
that in matters of such importance his signature could have
appeared so many times without his authority.
Kaltenbrunner has claimed that when he took office as Chief
of the Security Police and SD and as Head of the RSHA he did
so pursuant to an understanding with Himmler under which he
was to confine his activities to matters involving foreign
intelligence, and not to assume over-all control over the
activities of the RSHA. He claims that the criminal program
had been started before his assumption of office; that he
seldom knew what was going on; and that when he was informed
he did what he could to stop them. It is true that he showed
a special interest in matters involving foreign
intelligence. But he exercised control over the activities
of the RSHA, was aware of the crimes it was committing, and
was an active participant in many of them. Conclusion. The
Tribunal finds that Kaltenbrunner is not guilty on Count
One. He is guilty under Counts Three and Four.

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